


Peppidy's Story

by VerucaSol



Category: DayZ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-07-19 16:14:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19976896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerucaSol/pseuds/VerucaSol
Summary: In the heart of the Infected Quarantine Zone, the greatest bank heist in history will happen.





	1. Chapter 1

Peppidy's Story

A DayZ Novel

Chapter 1

Morning Starbucks

Our meeting is very informal. The five of us casually drift in, not all at once. I come in second, meeting Johann. He is the tallest of us. The big guy is Swedish, I believe, though he has no accent. He is at least six foot four inches tall, probably around two hundred forty pounds, and not more than a pound or two would be fat. He is attractive in that overtly manly way, with the high cheek bones, the Nordic features, and blonde hair. I like him, he is funny, yet also very intense.

As usual, Johann is wearing jeans that look uncomfortably tight, a black turtleneck sweater, and a pair of expensive looking dress shoes. He typically looked dressed up, though I have seen him in sweat pants and a tank top. As I sit, I see him check his watch. He wears one of those Apple watches, the kind that work with your iPad and stuff. The others should be along directly.

Frank arrives as I am sipping my mocha Frappachino and trying to look interested in my laptop. We never message or write anything, we always meet in person and discuss what we have to discuss in a whisper. Johann is fanatical about never leaving a trail. Even when we talk, he is using what he calls a white noise generator, to make surveillance difficult. Normally, electronic surveillance is handled by Ash. She is our computer and electronics expert. If its electronic, Ash probably know how to build it, break it, or otherwise work it. Frank is just kind of paranoid though, and I respect that, but it is a little excessive.

Johann glances over at a man in a polo shirt and slacks. The glance is longer than casual, and it alerts me that he is there and glancing at us too. I raise an eyebrow at Johann, but he just looks back at the entrance as if he is not concerned at all. If Johann doesn't care, then I don't either. Besides, Ash walks in and smiles to me, then to Johann, then just acknowledges Frank. She and Frank don't get along so well. I have no idea why they don't, they share so many interests, but I suspect there was something between them at one time by the way they know so much about each other. I am new to the group, Johann just contacted me about joining two years ago, and I have not really sorted everyone.

Kyle finally walks in, he and Ash sit together at the table near Johann, and after we all feel comfortable that its time to start our meeting, Johann nods and we push our tables together. I am not the only one surprised when polo shirt guy comes over and sits down by Johann. Instantly Frank does not like this and looks like he might get up and leave. I am inclined to do the same, this particular group is not the typical group that might meet up. We are kind of unusual. We like to meet up and puzzle through how to solve certain things that seem extra legal. For example, if there was a murder, or a robbery or some other type of event that the authorities do not seem capable of working out, we take it on, just as a hobby, and see if we can figure it out. We never do anything more, we do not tell the authorities, or act on what we figure out, we just like to figure out how.

“Before you all get up and leave, let me introduce Mr. Jarvis. He will be with us today. I know Mr. Jarvis from my work. He has come to me with some information that I find quite interesting. Please give us a few minutes before you leave.” Johann says in his deep, yet gentle voice. Frank grumbles something like “that's all you get” and looks perturbed.

“You know the rules, Johann.” Kyle says angrily. I understand why. It is a rule that outsiders are not brought into the meetings without a group discussion and vote. I can't imagine the discussion, nor the vote, when I was brought in, but I am sure it was quite interesting.

“You need to hear this. Trust me on this. We have something here, an opportunity that we need to seriously consider.” Johann says insistently. I don't like it. Still, I am the newest member, so I won't speak up until I am asked, that is also the rule. We speak in order of seniority. Kyle and Johann are the founders. So far there have been eleven members of the group. Over the last ten years, some have come, like me, and some have left, like the one I replaced. Always though, there are five of us.

“Talk fast, I don't like this.” Frank says, because it is his turn. Ash nods, she rarely speaks much. Finally they turn to me. I swallow a nervous lump in my throat. “I will be following Frank.” I say hedging a bit, but feeling like I need to back the security of the group over my loyalty to Johann. It does not go unnoticed, and Kyle looks a bit surprised that I would side with Frank of all people. It is no secret to anyone that Frank has no respect for me. He tolerates me at most. Still, I just smile and drive him nuts, because he can't get under my skin. Of all the group members, my specialty is the most unique.

“Mr. Jarvis works for a defense contractor. He has some drone flight path schedules for that infection quarantine zone, Chenarus. He knows where they fly, and when.” Johann says quietly. “That means we could infiltrate Chenarus and go where we want to, without being noticed.”

“Why the hell would we want to go there?” Kyle asks. Frank snorts, agreeing. I roll my eyes at the thought. Even the normally level headed Ash is starting to gather her stuff to leave.

“I can give you a half a billion reasons to go.” Johann says in a very serious tone. Franks freezes, looking back at Johann like he can't believe what he just heard. I can't believe that. Kyle, however, starts to sit back down. Not knowing what to do, I start to sit back down too. I trust Kyle and if even Frank is somewhat curious, then it can't hurt to at least hear what Johann has to say.

“That's a ridiculous about of money. Even if there was that much in the QZ, there is no way we could move that much without a few large trucks.” Kyle points out. Frank nods agreeing, sitting back down. Ash tilts her head questioning this too. I didn't know that, but then, I have never seen that much money.

“That won't be necessary. The money is already out of the country, safely secured in a level 10 secured box in Zurich.” Johann says. Kyle looks confused, as does Ash. I'm not sure what the hell is going on either. If the money isn't in the QZ, then why the hell would we risk going in? And besides, its in a level 10... oh... I understand now.

“So, we would be after the dongle?” I ask having figured it out. Johann smiles sticking his finger out and tapping me on my nose. “Ding ding ding, the lady from Romania gets the prize.” he says grinning. Kyle nods, understanding it too. A level 10 secured box is pretty much the highest security box in the world. Even if you could somehow break into the Swiss bank depository, and even if you could figure out which box you wanted, without the dongle, you would never get into it. The dongle is an electronic device that is synchronized to the combination code for the box. Even the box owner does not know what the security code is for the box without the dongle. Every fifteen minutes, the dongle receives a random number from the box registry. The number sent would mean nothing to anyone intercepting it, so it would be impossible to just fake the dongle by intercepting the encrypted number sent. It is not that easy. Instead, the dongle has its own little tiny microchip that then runs that random number through its own algorithm, and produces a new code. So basically, the security code for the box is changed every ten minutes. The advantage to this is, nobody can simply hack your box security number by trying every number sequence, since that would take months. The code is always changing, so even if you did happen to try the right number, the chances are, you would try it after it has already changed, or before the number was correct, either way, it would not unlock until it was entered three times properly.

“You do realize, the odds of us finding that thing are so remote, there is no chance at all. I mean, its the size of a key chain, and you want us to search the entire QZ for it?” Frank snorts in derision. I shake my head no, speaking out of turn. “No Frank, it is not that hard to find. The dongle has an isotope in it that can be traced by satellite. Chances are, they know exactly where it is.” I look over at Johann to see if he agrees. He nods, pointing at me again.

“I see Peppidy knows a thing or two about these dongles. Which, I suppose should be expected, considering why she is here. But there is another reason we need you, Peppidy.” Johann says putting his giant hand on my shoulder. “The safe it is in, its a Turov 19B.” I see Ash roll her eyes. Those of us in the trade know, there are such things as unicorns, and the Turov is one of them. During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union built five Turov 19 safes. Two were Turov 19A models, which were made from standard reinforced armored plate. They were among the most secure safes every designed, pretty much impossible to crack, until a weakness was exposed. They were highly advanced for their day, with a regular tumbler set, an eleven digit code, and an electronic release. They were a marvel of their day, however, it was discovered, a magnet placed just right, would attract the opposing magnetic piece of the electronic release, and that would unlock the safe. The British exploited this fact for years, having one of their spies steal documents from the East Germans. Eventually it was discovered, and the Soviet Secret Service, the KGB, had the design altered to eliminate the electronic release. A standard wheel lock was put in place, and the Turov 19B became known as the safe that was impossible to crack. Well, that was true for thirty years, until three men figured out how to crack one. Of those three men, the one that was caught, was put in a Soviet Gulag and died, the other two escaped. One is still alive, living in England under a new identity, but he was badly injured in the escape, and believed to be paralyzed from the chest down, and the last of them is my father, but he is too old, sickly and frail to ever survive a trip to the QZ. On the other hand, I know how he did it.

“So you want to go into the QZ, have me crack that Turov, and recover the dongle?” I ask quietly. Kyle scowls at me for speaking out of turn. I nod my apology.

“Before we get to that, I want to know who's money does that dongle control? Somebody who will be looking for it?” Kyle asks. Frank agrees. Frank, as I said, is a nervous kind of guy. The thought of someone coming after us, or more to the point, him, clearly scares him. For the record, it does not set well with me either.

“The Chenarus Royal Family failed to make it out of the QZ when the outbreak happened. Surveillance drones have identified at least two of the royal family, infected. The odds are, none of them made it out, so nobody will be looking for the money.” Mr. Jarvis explains. I glance over at Ash to see if shes comfortable with this Jarvis guy. He seems like he knows far more than he is letting on.

“OK, questions? Kyle you first.” Johann says, as usual, going around the table. Kyle nods. “Yes, just who are you Mr. Jarvis?” he asks.

“I work for the defense department. I am in charge of all the drone flights for the UN security flights. As you may have heard, nothing in the QZ moves without our drones seeing it.” he says cryptically. “While the world likes to believe we see everything, in truth, the drones cover only about thirty percent of the QZ at any given moment, leaving much of the area uncovered. Even the thirty percent is not always watched, as drones break down, or need to be refueled. Sometimes something alerts us to an unusual event, such as a fire breaking out, or some other instance, and one or two drones are dispatched to investigate. So it would not be impossible for a small group to infiltrate the QZ and retrieve the dongle and get out, unnoticed. That is, if they had someone on the outside letting them know where the drones are, so they could lay low and stay out of the cameras sight, when the drone passed over them. That is where I come in.” he says giving Kyle a smile that looks as fake as his name probably is.

“And, in return for this, you take how much?” Kyle asks, which is what I was wanting to know too. Frank nods, apparently also having had the same thought.

“I take ten percent.” Mr. Jarvis says flatly. Frank just about spits out some coffee he was sipping. Ten percent is a big amount. Yes, sure it is paltry in comparison to what is left, but still. “I believe if you split the remainder up, it will more than satisfy all of your needs for the rest of your lives, and then some.” It is hard to argue that, but something smells funny about this.

“Frank, your turn.” Johann says, since technically Kyle got two questions, but being one of the founders, he and Johann kind of do whatever they want.

“You are willing to risk prison for that amount of money? How will you possibly explain having that amount of money, working as a drone supervisor?” Frank asks. Excellent question. Ash nods agreement. If he gets caught, he could turn on us, and that would make this whole thing fall apart fast. In fact, right now he is suspicious in many ways, and that is the least of them, but it is a valid point.

“I do not intend to just go spending it. I have seven years left till I retire, at which time, I intend to move to the Caribbean and live off a Swiss account.” he says matter of factually. Something about how he says that just does not convince me, but Johann and Kyle seem to go along with it. Ash looks dubious, as does Frank, but I am not sure Mr. Jarvis can tell. Johann then motions to Ash.

“Why us? I mean, none of us are really the kind to actually do something like this. How did we get involved?” she asks. Very good question. I wish I had thought to ask. Well, actually I did wonder that, but I forgot that question when they started talking about millions of dollars. You know, it is funny how fast money can make you lose your common sense. For example, if any of us had any common sense right now, we would all walk away from this right now. We do not seem to have that common sense.

“Actually, I contacted a few friends I know, asking if they knew anyone that might know about the drone flights. I have been working this plan over for a while now, which is why I sought out Peppidy to join us.” Johann says.

“I knew you were up to something when you invited that girl.” Frank says bitterly. He was, and apparently still is, against me being part of the group. “You should have told us you had a plan, Johann. That is shit. You know we don't do solo like that, you of all people, its your own fucking rule!” he says hitting the table with his fist hard enough to topple an empty cup. I bend over and pick it up, returning to sitting upright to see Johann and Frank staring daggers at each other.

“You are out of line Frank. It is not your turn to speak. You forfeit your turn next round.” Kyle says putting his hand on Johann's shoulder and shaking his head slowly to Frank. We do not want to make a scene, we must not draw attention. That also is the rule.

“Peppidy, your turn.” Johann says after an awkward long minute or two. I look around the table at the group, and Mr. Jarvis. They are curious now because this is the first time I have ever been involved in the screening and approval process for something so large. I consider my thoughts.

“I have to go with Frank on this one, sorry Johann. We don't know this guy, and none of us have ever done anything this insane. I feel kind of used. You should have told me why you selected me. I am not sure I can agree to this.” I say slowly. “But because it is my turn to ask a question, I want to know, won't somebody notice that none of us are the Chenarus royal family, even if we DO get this dongle?” I ask pointing out the obvious.

“I am sorry you feel that way Peppidy, please try to understand, you were not selected only because you know the Turov, you were selected because there is no safe you can't crack. This group has always had a top of the line safe cracker. When Hamid retired, we needed someone at least as good as, if not better than him. Your name came up among four others. I am sure you know who they are. Three have records already, one is a white hat. You were the best choice. Now, as to the royal family, nobody knows much about the family themselves. The King and Queen are well known, but their children have not been on record since they were very young. You could pass as the Princess, Tatiana Lipov. Since the odds are, the real Tatiana Lipov is either one of the Infected, or was umm... well... it is highly unlikely that anyone could possibly question your authenticity. Once inside Chenarus, it would only take us a few minutes at one of their government offices, to create the papers for you, complete with a legitimate government seal. I doubt anyone that did have a shred of doubt, would be willing to go into the QZ to check it out.” Johann says. Kyle grins a bit. In a way, it is the perfect crime. The only problem is, at least at one point in this, I would be fully exposed, accessing the depository. That is the most dangerous moment.

“OK, Kyle, your turn.” Johann says again. Kyle thinks for a moment. “Ok, Johann, let us assume we are even willing to do this stupid idea, I need to know, how.” Johann grins. “I know a few people in Eastern Europe. I could get us to the border, armed, supplied, and ready to go. The only question is, who is willing to try?”

“Ash, your turn.” Johann says. I sense momentum is on his side, but that could just be me. “OK, Johann, let us go ahead and assume you can do this, what kind of time line are we talking about? A few days from now, weeks, months?” Johann pushes some cups out of the way and lays down a folder. It is one of our standard files. We keep them for each of the crimes we solve. This may be the first time one is being used for a crime we would actually commit. I admit, my heart is beating faster. That is a lot of money, and mom and dad could use it, for sure. So could I. I know Ash could use it, she is struggling at her job, and has been wanting to quit for years, or so I am told. Frank always bitches about his job. He is actually a cop. I know, right? Go figure. He is one of the investigators that check out immigration and naturalization claims. I don't really know much more than that, I don't ask, I don't want to know. I know that his job drives him to drink, and he does not sleep well and has an ulcer. Kyle has always dreamed of opening his own training center for water polo. Don't ask me. I have no idea what a water polo training center would be like. I can't say I have ever even seen a water polo match, or game, or whatever they call it. I can't even swim.

For the next half hour, Johann lays out his plan. We each take separate flights to Eastern Europe. I can always use the excuse I am going to visit relatives. The others can claim different things, perhaps vacation, or something. Then we meet up in Vienna, where we will gear up and take a helicopter flight into the QZ when the drones are all redirected out of the flight path. If we fly low enough, we should make it in unnoticed. Once we are in, the helicopter will be our only way out. We will have to push it into one of the hangers at the big military base. If anything happens to it, we will be stuck inside the QZ and probably die.

Once in, we will make our way to the nearest town, try to get a vehicle running. That should not be too hard, Frank is an expert at cars. He can drive like nobodies business, and can get just about anything to run. He has a really nice old car he restored by himself. It is immaculate and I would love to have it. It is a nice shade of silver, I think it is a Mustang. He says it is one of the more sought after Mustangs, and I do not doubt that one bit. If I know anything about Frank, it is that he has great taste in cars. He did help me to get mine. Admittedly, he laughed when I told him what I wanted, but I have my reasons. In case you are curious, I got a Lada Niva, because it is a really great car. He had to find an older Niva that was still in great shape, which proved tough. In the end, he found one that was 27 years old, in semi-restored condition, then imported it finished the restoration. That was last year. We became almost friends during this, but Frank has always been tough to know. We had a little friction because I wanted something newer, but he finally got it through my head that because of government emissions standards, as well as safety and other standards, anything newer than 25 years old would be next to impossible to import and get licensed. I do love my little Lada.

Assuming we get a vehicle running, which is a fairly safe bet, we will be told what route is clear to take, to get from the town, to the target. Mr. Jarvis will keep in communication with us through Satellite phone, and keep us updated on the drone flights, so we know when to turn off the road, and where to hide.

We will arrive at some town called Novodmitrovsk. The bank vault we are looking for is three levels down under the government building there. Once we have the dongle, we will make our way back to the helicopter, push it out, and fly back to Austria. After a few days, Johann and I will go to Zurich, where I will then secure the account for us, and from there, we make plans for our future. It sounds all deceptively simple. By the time he finishes, Kyle seems somewhat convinced its possibly workable. Johann clearly thinks its possible. That is two votes. We need a third, and I am shocked to hear Frank vote to go ahead with the plan. Ash votes to go ahead reluctantly, but wants us to all have time to train in shooting guns. It takes some begging, but I finally agree to go, but only so long as someone can take care of my mom and dad while I am gone. Frank, surprisingly, agrees to take them in with his parents. It is odd that I can not picture Frank with parents.

We agree that the meeting has run longer than we would have liked, so we split up. Over the next two weeks, we will all meet with Frank, individually, to train in how to shoot hand guns and rifles. He is a cop, so he has access to firearms. That is good.

As we all leave, one at a time, I look over at Ash, and she back at me. We silently exchange looks of nervous doubt. The Infection is one of the scariest pandemics ever. It is a mutated form of mad cow disease. Somehow it became far more aggressive and jumped species from bovine to human. The effects are an excessive production of saliva. The infected victim becomes disoriented, causing them to become uncoordinated and paranoid. The fear produced by the paranoia causes the victim to be aggressive and violent. The victim also becomes unable to speak or communicate, their brains break down as the prions start to damage it permanently which means there is no cure. Once infected, you are doomed unless you can find treatment within an hour. That was years ago, at least. This new strain was reported to mutate fast, and by now, the treatments may not be effective at all. Oddly, the infected tend to be injured by their lack of coordination, and the open sores they have then can infect anyone they come in contact with. If an infected were to sneeze on you, or in any way pass bodily fluids onto you, and those fluids get into your blood stream, you are infected. So while they can not infect you just by skin to skin contact, if they get any bodily fluid in contact with yours, you are as good as dead. This new strain is so aggressive, that the symptoms take effect within hours. The infected lose all thought, all emotional comprehension. They do not think beyond basic primitive instinct, to hunt, to eat, to kill. They feel nothing, have no mental capacity to think or reason. That scares the hell out of me.

I say nothing to my mom or dad when I get home, but for the next three days, I spend my time working on how to bust a Turov. When it is my turn, I meet Frank at the gun range, and learn to shoot a pistol, and sub-machine gun, and a rifle. I find out I am not very good at it, but apparently Ash is wicked good with them, as is Frank, and interestingly, so is Kyle. Apparently Kyle was in the Army. I had no idea, Kyle does not discuss that kind of stuff. I am learning a lot about my friends.

The weapons we will be taking in are the AKM rifle, the Skorpion sub-machine gun, and the Glock 19 pistol. Johann informs us that those are the most common weapons for that area. We should be able to get ammunition for them easier than we would other weapons. It sounds good to me. So we also get gear. Kyle recommends something called a Smersh vest, which I discover does not fit me well, because I am apparently not as big as Smersh soldiers are supposed to be. We also wear Russian style camouflage clothing, and we will be wearing helmets with face shields so that if we do get into contact with the Infected, there is less chance they might get something in our nose, eyes, or mouth. The more we equip, the more we train, the more we get closer to leaving, the more terrified I feel. This is surreal, and I keep feeling like I am going to wake up from this dream and find myself laying in a pool of sweat.

The two weeks that pass seem to drag on forever, and yet, they also seem to pass like a brief moment. It is mind stunningly real to me as I am dressed in just jeans and a jumper, boarding a 747 on my way to Romania. I feel a bit like the outsider, as the others have met a few times without me. Apparently, because they are longer term members, and because they have specialties that encompass far more than my pivotal role, they had to coordinate more. I am surprised to see Ash and Frank almost at each others throats. I knew they did not like each other, but now they seem like they could come to blows at the drop of a hat. Kyle and Johann seem very chummy with Mr. Jarvis, and that kind of bothers me. As for me, I am numb, except for moments of terror.

The flight is long. I try to sleep it away, but lets face it, trans-Atlantic flights suck. I land in London, then get my connecting flight to Romania, where I land and visit relatives for a couple days. After that, I catch a ride to Austria with a group of tourists. By the time I do arrive in Vienna, the rest have gathered at the cafe we agreed to, and I feel almost relived to see them. Still, I also feel terrified at the thought of going into the QZ. I don't want to do this. I think Ash doesn't want to either. None of us look particularly comfortable with this plan, but we are talking about a half a billion dollars. When it comes to that kind of money, it is very hard to say no.


	2. Change of Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barely into the job and already things go wrong

Chapter 2

Change of Plans

The helicopter that is lined up for us looks as old as I am. In truth, it looks older. Kyle says its a Mil-8, whatever that means. All I know is that its big, ugly, loud, and looks like its already trashed.

Upon closer inspection, much of the damage is painted on, as in, the sides are painted to look damaged and burned. It looks as if its far worse than it is. I do not know why. I am tempted to ask questions, like why there are a bunch of dogs in the back of the helicopter, and when we will arrive at the landing zone. We have been flying for over an hour. I am sitting on the little jump seat, trying to keep my stomach from emptying itself. This flight is the worst, like a roller coaster that does not stop.

Frank is going over his gear again, and again, and again. Ashley is napping, having spent the morning helping with the electronics. She and Mr. Jarvis were making sure the headsets we will be wearing, are working properly. They have a little camera on one side and a mic on the other, and a wire that runs down to a little pack that we wear on our arm. Apparently it will send real time audio and video to him when activated. This will allow us to have real time communication with him, and allow him to see what we see, and hear what we hear, in case we need him to clear out some Infected, or give us directions, if we get separated from the group.

After the umpteenth time my stomach tries to empty, I get the courage to ask. “So, how long till we get to the landing zone?” Johann smiles to me, kindly. He then goes back to looking over the map and talking privately with Kyle. That means “don't ask.” I shrug and go back to trying to close my eyes, but that just makes it worse. I don't like helicopters. I especially don't like this one. It reminds me too much of the first time I rode the roller coaster Space Mountain. I got so sick, I threw up all over myself and the people up to three cars back. I did not enjoy that ride, and I think it would be safe to say, they did not either. Who knew so much macaroni and cheese could come out of one girl? For what it's worth, I did feel better a few minutes later, though I was hungry not long after. I am not sure if it is ironic, but I craved... you guessed it, macaroni and cheese. I did not, however, crave another ride on Space Mountain.

To pass the time, I look out the window. We are flying very low. It often looks as though the tree tops are going to hit us. From this altitude, I can see the small town we are passing over. In many ways, it looks like back home. It kind of looks like a much older version of home, as if time was wound back fifty years. Then as we get even closer, I start to see the devastation.

The dead lay in the street, rotting. The houses are almost all devastated by the Infected. If anyone or anything was alive in them, it seems the Infected savaged the house, eventually getting in and I assume, devouring whatever was inside. The devastation does not end there, however. The vehicles that I can see are nearly all wrecks. Everything seems to have been torn apart as if the entire town suddenly went into a mindless rage. This includes fences, utilities, even the police station and fire house.

From a bit farther off, it almost looks normal. The Infected wander around making it seem almost like a typical day. Most of the fires have long since burned out, so there is very little smoke in the air. Then, however, as you come closer, you will see signs that something is off. The vehicles are not moving, just still, wherever they were left. Many are destroyed, having run into things as their hapless drivers were swarmed and devoured by the Infected. Then you notice the fences, often torn away, as Infected raged against whatever barriers were erected to keep them out. Doors hang ajar, windows are broken out. The Infected stagger along, shambling incoherently and without purpose. Noises or movement seems to attract them and they often seem fascinated with anything they can not get their hands on, that continues to move and make noises. I observe one of them circling around and around a power line that has a piece of something blowing in the wind banging against the pole. The Infected keeps looking up at it, then agitated, races around and around the pole, trying to find a way to get to it. I am curious what else she will do, but we pass over and continue on and I lose sight of her.

We cross a field, and I notice a herd of Infected slogging through it. I sometimes wonder if they truly have any real intelligence, beyond just instinctive actions. They seem to find individual Infected to follow. I wonder if some small part of the brain holds memories. Perhaps before they became Infected, and essentially their personality died, if that person was of some importance to them. Perhaps they follow that particular Infected out of some past relationship. It is curious, really, because mentally, they are dead. When the infection takes over the body, the ability to think, to reason, to be self aware, really goes to shit. What is left is just a husk, an animated, yet mentally lifeless body, that continues on well after all that made it human is long dead. It would be horrific, if the victim were somehow aware, and trapped inside the body. Perhaps, a prisoner of their own mind, aware, able to see, to hear, to feel, taste, all of it, yet completely incapable of controlling even the tiniest part of its own flesh prison.

I try to put such thoughts behind me. The Pandemic is seven years old. At first it ravaged the world. Millions died fighting them. The disease spread with the shipping of tainted beef. The disease spread to every corner of the globe, but at first it spread slowly. It was indeed everywhere, the news was full of reports of new cases, and the world feared it was the end of us all. I remember those new stories.

Then the United Nations marshaled its World Health Organization, and they began to develop some form of vaccination. They failed, sadly, but meanwhile, the combined armies of the world fought back. As I said, millions died. The civilians that became Infected started to spread the disease quicker, as it mutated. Soon the soldiers themselves were becoming infected with it, and armies turned on themselves, and killed off their own units when they became Infected. In the end, thankfully, the outbreak was knocked down, and confined to several quarantine zones. Among them are Caribou, Celle, Chenarus, Esseker, Fallujah, Isla Duala, Lingor Island, Merderet River, Namalsk, Neaville, Novistrana, Oring, Ovaron, Panthera Island, Podagorsk, Sahrani, Takistan, Taviana, Trinity, Utes, and Zargabad.

Travel into a quarantine zone is not permitted. Obviously, travel OUT of a quarantine zone is a death sentence. This is why we must sneak in and out of Chenarus. If we get caught, we will be executed on sight. There is no trial, no jury, no anything. If you are caught trying to leave a QZ, you are killed. It is for the survival of the human race. We came very close to losing it all. I suppose it is justified. In the end, hundreds of millions died, if the outbreak were to spread again, it could cost us the end of civilization as we know it. I would hate to see the world reduced to what I see below us now. I suppose that is ironic, considering the fact we are sneaking into a QZ with the intention of sneaking back out. However, we do have test kits, and we will be testing ourselves before leaving. If any one of us tests positive for the infection, they are to be killed, because, lets face it, who wants to become one of them?

We drop suddenly, as we pass over a mountain, and I see the airfield. There are few aircraft left, and those that are left, look to be in a terrible state of neglect. I understand now why the helicopter looks as it does. If the pilot were to land among them, the casual observer, monitoring a drone camera, might easily over look it as just another piece of debris among the wrecks. It makes sense to me, but what does not, is why we do not land at the air field, as planned. I look over at Johann and he is talking to Mr. Jarvis. He does not look too happy with him at the moment, and I get the feeling, this entire venture is already going pear shaped. For some reason, I do not feel surprised at this, honestly. Like everyone else, I had a bad feeling about that guy. I am just surprised nobody else is getting upset about this. We have not even landed, and already things are going off plan.

As the helicopter touches down, I feel the unbridled terror that I knew was coming. There is an instinctive fear that comes from being around the Infected. As much as we all want to believe we are brave, I see the same fear in the eyes of my friends. One bite, one scratch, one chance of infection and you are as good as dead.

I wonder how the people living here dealt with fear. I cant imagine the kind of fear they felt, as they built barricades and tried to keep the Infected out of their towns. I can only imagine the fear in the children, seeing their parents terrified, trying desperately to hold out against the hoards of Infected, coming to kill them. Town after town would fall, and they would know the heard are growing, approaching, relentless and unstoppable. I can not imagine how they felt, seeing their families crying, knowing there was absolutely nothing they could do, there was no stopping what was coming. And then the hoards would come, tearing through the barricades, grabbing their friends, their family, watching them being slaughtered, then the absolute mind numbing terror as they feel the hands of the Infected grasping them, knowing its over. I am shaking, trying not to cry from the fear I feel. A half a billion dollars may not be worth this. I don't want to be here. I don't like this, maybe we should just get back on the helicopter and go home. This was a bad idea.

The dogs are released, and they scatter, barking and howling. I wonder what the purpose of that was, until I hear a couple howl and growl, then I realize, they were bait, to lure the Infected away from us. The noise of the helicopter draws Infected and they come as fast as they can, drawn by the promise of something to eat. We would be surprised by them, while preparing our gear, if the dogs were not able to draw them away. We work quickly, buckling on back packs, checking our radios one last time, and taking that precious few minutes to gather our wits.

Frank finally gets all our attention, chambering his rifle, pointing to the wood line to our left. “I can hear noise in that direction, we might want to get going.” He says. Johann agrees, so Kyle takes point. Johann goes second, followed by Ashley and then me, with Frank bringing up the rear. “I'll keep an eye on Peppidy.” he says, sounding a bit put out.

“Thank you Frank, but I don't need a baby sitter.” I say not really wanting Frank, of all people, watching over me. He isn't having it.

“Of all of us, you are the one person we can't lose. Any of us, we can probably do without, but you are the only one that can crack that safe. We need you healthy when the time comes, or all of this is a waste of time.” he says angrily. I don't argue with him. I have to concede he is right about that logic. I suddenly feel responsible for the rest of them. If I had refused this job, none of them could have gone through with it. The fact that I agreed to do this, means I am in some small way, responsible for everything that happens.

“Lets just try to get all of us through this. We have a half a billion reasons to survive this.” Ash says quietly. She is the peace maker of the group, it seems. I suppose the irony of that is lost on the rest, as she makes peace while carrying an AK rifle. Well, I suppose you have to break some eggs if you want to feed people. Well, I suppose you don't have to. You could give them a carrot or something. I don't know, I'm too scared to think just now. I can practically feel the Infected breathing down my neck.

The air is cold, there is a storm coming. Deep rolling thunder crashes through the valleys as we walk. We must circle back past the air field, to a town just South of it, and hope to find a vehicle of some type. Mr. Jarvis is talking to Johann on the satellite phone, and he says we have four hours until the drone passes over our heads. When he calls back, we will have fifteen minutes to find cover, or else we will be spotted by the drone's cameras. The helicopter is flying off now, putting distance between itself and the approaching drone. If the drone were to recognize something like a helicopter sitting in a field, that previously had been empty, it would send an alert to the pilot/observer. Most of the time that would be enough to place the drones on high alert, and that would end our adventure before it even begins.

We walk all morning, it is getting warmer now, nearly noon, and we have just passed the airfield, and are preparing to enter the town. While walking past the airfield, we did spot dozens of Infected. They were soldiers. We can see the rotting uniforms, the helmets. They must have been the airfield security garrison. Chances are high, that the town we are headed to, is also infested. The job, when we arrive, is not so simple as to just take the first car or truck we see. That would alert the drone, as a missing vehicle would likely be noticed. Instead, we need to secure one that is in a garage, or was under some form of awning. Kyle and Frank will be the ones that actually secure and hot wire the car. For that purpose, Frank carries a small pack. It is a portable jump-start kit. Vehicle batteries have likely long ago given up the ghost. We can not risk the car not starting, but giving away their position. That could spell disaster.

We crest a hill, having circled the airfield, and see a large barn. We pause and Johann and Kyle observe it through binoculars. Ash and I pass around canteens, so everyone can get a last drink before we head into the town. From here, it only gets harder, and so far its been nerve wracking. I feel exhausted, both from the hike, as well as from feeling like a dozen Infected are likely to jump out of every bush. Along the way, we heard several noises. Usually it was just the wind, or some animals, but a few times it was an Infected, out in the middle of nowhere. In those instances, Kyle killed it with his suppressed pistol.

“That is Vybor. We should be able to secure some wheels there, and probably find a place to hide out in the big barn.” Johann says in his calming voice. Oddly, it is not calming me one bit. I have a bad feeling already, and it is not going away.

We walk down the hill, away from the protective tree line, and make our way to the big barn. There is a wall around the little farm, but in places, the wall has been collapsed. I assume the Infected wanted in, and they are like a force of nature. It is practically impossible to stop them. The wall that was erected around this particular quarantine zone, is built out of those cargo boxes they transport stuff in on railroad cars. They stacked them three high and three deep, and filled in the gaps with steel plates and concrete barriers. Still, they do not trust that. Soldiers regularly drive around them, every few minutes. If any Infected do attack the wall, it would take them a while to break through, during that time, the soldiers would notice. At least so far, that is how it has worked. This wall, however, was just bricks and mortar, and that did not hold them, I would guess, more than a few minutes.

Kyle steps through the gap and we hear him firing his pistol several times. Johann joins him and they both fire for a while, then Johann steps back out, motioning for us to follow. As we do, we step over the fresh bodies of at least a dozen Infected. I don't get too close. The smell alone is enough to gag, but I am terrified they will suddenly come back to life and kill me. I remember, when I was little, seeing the videos on television, of the Infected rampaging through places. The pandemic was still fresh then, and people were glued to their televisions, refusing to leave home. The world was in shock. We all want to believe we are OK now, that the worst is over, but some of us will never be OK.

Johann stops and motions Frank and Kyle over. They are discussing the most likely places to find a vehicle, based upon their observations from the hill top. Ash and I head into the barn only to see a scene so horrific, I can not relate it to you in any way that does justice.

The local families must have made a last stand in here. They must have hoped the high walls and their few weapons, would have staved off the ravenous hoards. Instead, they turned this barn into a scene from some horror movie. I turn and vomit immediately, Ashley does as well right after.

There are body parts strewn everywhere. Blood stained the ground and the skeletons of those who were not Infected, litter the floor. It is easy to see how they cowered in the corner. That is where the majority of the corpses are piled. The entire floor, however, is smeared in the dark stains of the blood that was shed. The smell is so strong, it feels like a fog. Flies are still buzzing about, feeding off whatever rotting meat they find. Evidence that not even rats would touch the Infected that were killed, shows that there is something about Infected meat, that animals can sense and reject.

We both refuse to go into that barn again, and instead Johann and Ash clear the house. I hear a few shots, and when I finally do go in, I can see where they killed three Infected that were trapped in the house. We go to the second story and Johann watches through the windows to see how Frank and Kyle are managing in finding that vehicle.

It is nearly a half hour before we hear the car drive up the road to the farm house. Kyle quickly jumps out of it, when it reaches the barn, and pulls the door open. Frank drives it inside, and they close the door, then run back towards the gate. Frank closes it again, since it was closed before. We can not leave any trace that we have been here. Kyle throws a few rocks, to distract the few Infected that followed the car, and kills them in some bushes where the drone won't notice them. Then they close the barn door and join us inside not more than a couple minutes after Mr. Jarvis phones to tell us to find cover. So far, the plan is sort of working. Unfortunately, the vehicle they found is just like mine, and it will not fit us all inside, not with our gear too.

We go to the bottom floor and sit in the middle of the house. We hear the drone fly over, it is nearly silent at the altitude it flies, but we were quietly expecting it. I am curious if I can see it, but Johann says we should stay away from the windows. We can not risk it seeing us moving. That makes sense to me, so I lean back against a wall and close my eyes. I doubt I can sleep until we leave this place, but I am already so very tired, and it is getting rather hot. The flies are relentless, and are pissing me off. I finally pull my bandanna all the way up and cover my face so I can relax without them crawling all over me. We are all learning things about life in the quarantine zone, that we had not thought of. First, the smell. The smell of rotting flesh is heavy in the air. Second is the persistence of flies. They are everywhere, incessantly buzzing around. Third, the silence. There is no way to describe the eeriness of how silent Chenarus is. The Infected creep me the hell out, but just as creepy is seeing a town completely empty. Aside from the Infected wandering as they do, no vehicles, no children, no radio or televisions, no noise at all. If the Infected were not there, it would be a ghost town. I find it unnerving. It is unnatural and an abomination. I instinctively do not like it. I can see the same effect on my team mates. We all look and feel unnerved by it.

The drone only stays for ten minutes, just long enough to do a casual sweep. Eventually we do not hear it. Mr. Jarvis calls to tell us we are clear to go. The drone reported back some Infected were dead, in the yard and along the road, but that is nothing unusual. Infected eventually do rot and die. The pilots ignore those reports, they mean nothing. We are free to get moving towards the next town. Mr. Jarvis knows our itinerary, so he knows we are going East. We will pass through Kabanino, till we arrive at Stary Sobor. We will have to spend the night there, or somewhere near there. Kyle reports that the little Lada has enough fuel to get us to Kabanino, but not to Stary. If we hope to make it to our first way point, we will have to find fuel. Fortunately, there is a gas station along the way at Kabanino. With luck, we can get some, and fill the little Lada.

The solution, that Frank recommends, and Johann agrees to, is for Johann and Kyle to sit on top of the cars roof. They removed the cars hatch back, and I sit in the very rear, while Frank drives, and Ash sits in the back seat. Most of our packs and stuff will sit in the passengers seat, where they can be accessed quickly, and Ash will keep the rest in the back seat with her. I reluctantly agree, but then I am the last asked.

I scrunch down in the back seat, my legs dangling over the rim where the hatch would close. It is uncomfortable. The over loaded Lada can barely get going, its tiny under powered engine sounds sick, and it threatens to fail us on the first hill. Fortunately, Frank is as good at keeping the car going, as he claims to be. We crawl up the hill, already running far behind schedule. He curses the entire way, calling the car every name he can think of, and putting together adjectives to insult the car, that do not normally work together. In an odd way, I am impressed by his creative use of the language. I decide not to piss Frank off as much as this car has, because I am quite sure I would shrivel up and die were I subjected to such a torrent of hatred. The little car, however just chugs on, not a single fuck given. Good on you little Lada.

It is easy to fall in love with this land. The rolling hills, the mist covered mountains, even the grassy fields, they are like something from an oil painting. I half expect to see Bob Ross somewhere painting the next bend. But just as I fall in love with the scene, we pass by a burned out bus. The charred corpses still hang out the doors and windows. Bones and rotting meat litters the ground around the bus, where Infected attacked and slaughtered the escaping victims. I have to turn away, it is too much for me to take. It was a school bus. I feel tears fall on my cheeks, making trails down where the dust has settled on my sweaty face. Ash prays quietly in the back seat. From the roof I hear Kyle say something to Johann. I can't make out what, but it sounds sad.

As we arrive at Kabanino, we see barriers were placed in the road. There is camouflage netting up over a check point. The military was trying to sort out the Infected from the innocent here, it seems. They must have set this up early on in the outbreak, before anyone understood it. We pass by the staging area. There are burned out vehicles and dead bodies littering the fields around it. The command bunker is made of sandbags with a wood covering, but the sandbags are partially knocked over, and stained with blood. We see weapons laying around, where soldier died. Frank pulls over, and Johann stands on the roof of the little Lada. I see it dent in, under his weight, but he needs to be able to see.

There are at least a dozen Infected in Kabanino, probably more. We can only see part of the town from this vantage point, so we will go in carefully. Frank and Kyle will take the car to the gas station, which is just ahead. Ash and I will stay with Johann, walking in. If any Infected are close by, they will be drawn to the sound of the motor, and likely leave us alone.

We see the Lada pull away, slowly, so they can keep the sound of the Lada's engine as quiet as possible. Meanwhile, Ash and Johann walk with me. We pass the area the soldiers would have been positioned, and Johann picks up a few rifles, taking the magazines out, and emptying them into his pocket. He tossed the empty magazines aside and keeps going. I figure it seems like a good idea, and do the same. Ash finally follows suit, and it gives us something to occupy our minds, as we walk.

The flies are not so thick out here in the open. There is no dead laying around where we are now, so we get some reprieve. This is nice. I stop a few times and take pictures of the scene. I want mementos of this, beyond the half a billion mementos we are after. This may be the biggest event in my life. Sure, I may never be able to tell anyone about it, since admitting we broke quarantine would likely have us killed immediately, but I can look back on them and know. Maybe someday I can tell someone, maybe. I do this discretely, since I know if Johann or Ash caught me, they would confiscate the camera. I don't care though. I will never do anything bigger than this in my life. I think I deserve a few pictures considering what I agreed to do.

We arrive to where Frank and Kyle are refueling the car. It is slow work. They have to siphon off the gas from the underground storage tank, using a hand crank device. That takes a long time, to fill the car. We are running well behind schedule. I also see they killed seven or more Infected, but they were clever enough to not do it in a way that would make it obvious they were here. A circle of dead Infected would indicate that someone was in the middle of the circle, shooting them. Instead, they lead them off in several directions, killing them under trees and near the walls of the station itself. The drone may not see all of them.

It is getting early evening by the time the Lada is ready to go. Johann talks to Mr. Jarvis on the satellite phone. It is agreed that we will find a place to stay for the night. Traveling at night would be high risk. We do not know the area well enough to risk that. One wrong turn could crash the car, ending this trip tragically, and stranding the survivors in this hell hole.

There is a large storage shed by the station, and Frank manages to force the little car into it. We close the doors, and turn to the station itself. It is far too small to allow all of us inside, and a drone is scheduled to pass over us in a few hours. We would be spotted, so we end up walking into Kabanino on foot. None of us like this, we are all strung out, and this last quarter mile hike takes more out of us than many felt we had in us to begin with. Even Frank and Kyle are ready to drop when we finally reach a small two story structure. We have to crouch low and slowly sneak past some Infected, to get into the structure, but we manage to get a window open, and slip inside unnoticed.

With the safety of the house walls between us and them, Frank and Kyle use their suppressed pistols to kill the few Infected outside. The rest of us silently unroll our bedrolls and try to lay down for a long night. We can not have a fire or any light, not with the drone coming, so we spend the night in the dark. Every creak of the old house, due to wind, age, or just nature being a dick to us, brings a start, and we sit up weapons ready. We often exchange looks that say it all. At the rate of travel we are going, it may take several weeks or months to get to Novodmitrovsk. We will eventually have to sleep sooner or later. Already we are going out of our minds, but I wonder if we were out of our minds to even agree to this stupid plan.

I fall asleep to the noise of the drone flying overhead. It is midnight, and I am so tired, that even if the Infected knocked on the door, I doubt Id have enough left in me to tell them to fuck off. None of us are up to a fight just now. Even Frank, who I have never seen 'not pissed off to some degree', seems too tired to fight. I drift off to nightmares of Infected chasing me. I am not sure what is better, to stay awake and be exhausted and slowly lose my mind, or to sleep and wake up bathed in sweat, screaming in terror. Suddenly, I am not so sure I want those damn photographs.


	3. Taking a Walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As things continue to deteriorate, we catch our breath

Chapter 3

Taking a walk

It is my turn monitor the radio link to Mr. Jarvis. Kyle and Frank left during my nap, to try to find a second vehicle to drive. Ashley is sitting by me, warming another cup of coffee over a heating tab, when we both hear Frank slam into the door. We both jump in fright, Ashley is quicker than me. She has her pistol drawn and motions for me to unbolt the door.

Frank bursts through the door, covered in mud and what I assume to be blood. He slams the door closed as Infected smash against the door. He slumps down the wall, gasping for breath. Ashley is pushing her shoulder against the door, holding it tight as the Infected rage against the door trying to get to the blood they smell. I wish whoever is screaming would shut the hell up until I realize its me. I cover my own mouth, realizing that I am the reason other Infected will be coming this way. Johann pulls me away from the window I am near, and sits me down. As we get quiet, the Infected start to lose interest. It seems forever, but is probably only ten minutes or so. The Infected do not seem to have a very long memory.

“Wheres Kyle?” I ask. Frank glares at me. “Frank... wheres Kyle?” I ask again. Frank raises his hand like he wants to hit me but Johann raises his and Frank looks at him for a few long seconds.

“Shes right, where is Kyle, Frank?” Johann says sternly. He looks at me, then back at Frank. After a minute, Frank shakes his head.

“Well, most of him is all over me. The rest, smeared all over whats left of the car.” Frank says wiping the blood off his face. “We got jumped as we were checking the car, and four of them... tore Kyle apart. I tried to help, I just wasn't in a position to do anything.”

“Why didn't you help?” I say starting to cry. Ashley puts her hand on my back, offering me a bottle of water. I'm both terrified and furious at Frank.

“I had my gear off so I could get under the car. When they hit, I was trapped under the car. There was no way I could get out from under it in one piece, so I just curled up and hoped they didn't see me.” Frank says. I want to be mad at him. I really want to hate Frank, but in that moment, I see him differently. He is like me, human, afraid. He did what I would have done. Well, I'm sure he didn't wet himself and scream and cry. But I would have curled up under the car too. It would be unfair of me to expect him to fight them off unarmed, just because hes a guy.

“Damn it Frank... Kyle was the best we had.” Johann says about as loud as he dares, considering who's outside. Great, they bring me all the way to WhodWantToLiveHereistan, and now were stranded on NotMe Street, without our best fighter? Can this get any better?

“I know... we lost Kyle, and the car.” Frank says bitterly as he drinks some water. I realize, we are also on foot now. Oh great, it just got better. We are screwed. We are so seriously screwed!

“We can't stay here. Get on the phone to Jarvis. We need to get out of here.” Ashley says fumbling with the phone.

“You don't have to, I've been giving him the daily video feed.” I say pointing to the camera on my head. “He probably saw everything. So, we can expect the helicopter to come for us?” I ask. Johann shakes his head no. I was afraid of that. I throw the empty water bottle across the room in frustration. This is NOT going well, and we just got here! Nobody was supposed to die. That was the plan, we go in, we all come out.

“Get the gear packed up, we need to get out of here.” Johann says. He looks at me, well, at the camera. “Jarvis, clear the air, we need to get moving. I need to get my people on the road, we have been sitting here too long.” he says. We start to pack up our gear and the phone rings. Of course, Mr. Jarvis will be calling.

Ashley answers the phone, surprisingly, by asking “Who's calling please?” Johann does a double take at her, even I raise an eyebrow. Ashley normally is more serious, and considering the circumstances, I figured she would be deadly serious right now. “Oh, Mr. Jarvis, how nice of you to call. Yes, Johann is here, but we are a little busy, as you may have seen. So how about you clear the air, and get us the hell out of here!” she says bitterly into the phone. Yea, Ashley is more serious. Johann grabs it from her.

“Jarvis, get us a path, we need to get moving. This is getting to us, and some distance is what we need. Where are we headed, and how soon can you get us on the road?” he demands. I have no idea what Jarvis says but Johann is having none of it and walks into the next room, arguing with Jarvis. He is busy for quite some time, leaving Ashley, Frank and I to finish packing the gear. We are sitting, looking angrily at each other, or more accurately, Ashley and I are pissed at Frank, though I know he really doesn't deserve it. I suppose Frank is mad at us for being mad at him. Fair enough. Maybe we all just need someone to be mad at for a little while. Inside, I just hope they don't realize this is all my fault, and get mad at me. If I had said no, none of us would be here. This entire mission would be impossible without me, because nobody else can open the Turov. In the end, Kyle is dead because I said yes to this idea. OK, my fault. So I have to follow through. I have to do this, for Kyle.

Johann walks back in, folding the satellite phone back up. “We walk in a half hour. Lets rest a bit, we have a long walk ahead. This is going to get ugly.” he says. Oh, it isn't ugly already?

The sun is barely peeking over the Eastern portion of the town. The shadows are long and there is a lot of movement outside. Johann opens the door, using his silenced Glock to kill an Infected as they turn towards us. Frank does the same to one coming around the fence. We walk quickly towards the end of the fence, silenced pistols out. We reach the end of the fence, pushing the gate open and see a dozen or more Infected wandering the streets. Frank puts a hand on Johann's shoulder, getting him to lower his pistol. We all want to kill the bastards, we all liked Kyle. This is not the time for revenge though. If we attract that many of them, we will be forced to use the rifles, and they are loud. We will attract every Infected in the area, and that will end this trip fast.

We know we have to get past the Infected, they are between us and Stary Sobor, but blasting our way through is out of the question. Johann nods and Frank takes point. Johann follows, then me, then Ashley. We start to walk, hunched over, down the street until we reach the first of the buildings. Inside we can hear a few Infected, probably wandered in and now can't get out. I'm OK with that. As far as I'm concerned, they can all go get stuck in a house somewhere. I have a few suggestions.

Frank leads us around behind, through a broken portion of a wall. After this is all over, if it is ever over, there will be a big demand for someone to replace windows and fix walls and doors. Maybe with my portion of the money, I will open a business that does that. What the hell, it can't lose money.

I step over the rubble and trip over something. I fall into Johann's back and he catches me. I look back and see it was the corpse of someone. My boot got caught on their rib cage. I want to vomit, but my stomach is empty. Instead, we keep going. Frank looks back, urging us forward. Ashley pushes me out of the way as she comes through. I start to give her a glare, but see that she was trying to avoid being caught by one of them. We stay in place as across the street the Infected staggers along and out of sight. We turn back and see Frank shaking his head, motioning us forward with his hand. We all walk quickly to him, to see what the big deal is.

On the other side of the fence he is at, is a police car. I fail to see why he is so excited about a police car. So what, its an old crashed police car, big deal? Johann apparently gets it and grins. I don't get it. Ashley grins and nods, putting her pistol away to dig through her side bag. I put my hands up in the “what?” gesture, but Johann and Frank just ignore me. Ashley and Frank climb over the fence, quietly releasing the hood of the police car. Johann pulls me along up a ladder on the next building, to a terrace. We can barely see them and are in no position to help, should anything go wrong.

Ashley joins us after a minute, then we see Frank climb over the wall and start to run towards our direction. Johann motions for us to get down, and we all start to climb down. Frank helps us all down the last few rungs, and grabs me by the harness dragging me along until I get my feet under me. We rush around the end of the building, South, not in the direction we wanted to go. Then it happens. The police car siren starts to growl. It is faint at first, then louder as it gets going. We stay still, huddled behind a dumpster as Infected rush past us. They seem to be leaping over fences and racing at the police car. Frank helps me to stand, whether I wanted to or not, and forces me to get running. We are racing down the street, back to the main street, then turn and start to head East, out of town. As we go, now and then we shoot an Infected or two, having diverted most of them to the old police car.

We make good progress until the last block. As we get to it, at least a dozen Infected are there. They apparently found some animal that wandered into town. The guts are strewn all over, and they are gorging themselves on it. Frank stops short and I bump him with a grunt. That alerts an Infected that alerts the others. Shit. This is not good.

Johann raises his rifle and starts to shoot. Ashley follows suit with hers, and Frank drags me to the window of a shop. As Johann and Ashley are shooting, more and more Infected are racing to us. Frank shoots the glass out on the window and looks inside. He then shoves me through the window, placing me on my back as he whistles to the others. I am standing up as they run over. Ashley follows through the window, grabbing my arm and turning me towards the back of the shop, where we hear movement in the back room. Behind us Johann climbs through the small window, then Frank. Ashley leads us back into the back room. There is a smaller Infected with no legs trying to climb over the dresser that fell on it, which cut its legs off. She shoots it in the head and checks the door. It is locked, of course. I am feeling like this is a bust, when she shoots the lock and kicks the door open.

Behind us, we hear the Infected figuring out how to get into the window. They are pretty stupid, but also in a feeding frenzy. Somehow one or two get inside, and Frank mows them down with his pistol. Ashley leads us out the side door, into the back area. In the back yard are a few more, but they don't seem to see us in their rush at the fence to get to the front of the shop. The noise of the angry Infected in front is drawing them there. Unfortunately the angry Infected are also trying to circle around to see if there is a way in. Say what you will about them, they are stupid, clumsy and stink like rotting flesh, but they are persistent and terrifying. We hear them on the opposite side of the wall, which at first seems like its not so bad, but these bastards know how to scale that wall, so at any moment we can expect them to come raining down on us.

Frank passes Ashley, now its his turn to keep grabbing my harness, tugging me along as if I'm too stupid to follow on my own. I want to say something, but the idea of bringing more Infected down on us terrifies me. Johann pulls the pin on a grenade and throws it over the fence towards Main Street. I am sure it is not called Main Street, but I can't think of a better name for it. We hear the boom, and lots of screaming Infected. The ones on the far side of the wall all scream out that horrible noise they make, and start running back towards their enraged “friends.” More are coming, apparently more enticed by the big boom than the, now dying, police siren.

We skirt around the wall, at last, seeing another shop with a shed behind it. Johann points and I see where Kyle died, at the shed. I briefly wonder how he knew where, and why he pointed it out to me. I have no time to ponder that, as I am led across the street. The Infected are so involved in the mess that was their friends, they ignore us hustling across the alley way. Frank hops up on top of the fence, using his pistol to kill four Infected on the other side, before reaching down and hauling me up by my harness. It hurts a bit, cutting into my hips and I'm furious at him. I am about to give him a few words, when he pushes me and I fall off down the other side on top of some barrels. It doesn't hurt, but it is embarrassing. I roll off them onto my butt, onto the ground. As I am standing up, Ashley follows, in not much better form. Frank helps pull Johann up the wall and they both hop down onto the barrels.

We open a window on the building near us and climb inside. I have to shoot an Infected that I find in a back room, but that is about the most I help. The others draw the shades down and close the windows as much as possible. We all catch our breath, reloading weapons and putting more ammo into the mags we used. Frank and Johann whisper about where to go as Ashley checks me for injuries. I check her too, since any kind of accidental infection by these things, and we are doomed to their fate. We would rather kill ourselves than that.

There is a small courtyard between us and the next building. It is a lower level house, it will not offer us any protection from that many Infected. We can not stay here, we have to go, now. Johann opens the door on that side of the house, and we carefully step out. The Infected are focused away from us, so we sneak around behind the house. I think we are doing great till Ashley accidentally kicks an empty can. I can't really be mad at her. There is a lot of trash laying around, and more than a few times, I accidentally kicked an empty plastic carton or box.

The noise only aggravates two Infected near us and I am able to shoot one of them as Frank shoots the other. He looks at me, smiles a second, then yanks my harness hard enough to almost make me drop my pistol. We nearly run the last 200 meters to the edge of town, beyond where the Infected are milling about. The street behind us looks like a slaughter house, with blood and body parts all over. I didn't think this shit hole could possibly be any more disgusting, and then it does.

We start to walk East, each of us lost in thought. The sun is now up and it is getting warm. I find myself looking back, wishing somehow we would see Kyle rushing to catch up to us. I liked him. He was nice to me when others were not nice or indifferent. I feel rather isolated now. Johann doesn't seem to really feel confident in me, Frank hates me, and Ashley I think, wants to like me, but doesn't trust me. So far I have been a bit of a weak link.

As we walk, I stop long enough to take my harness off and take my camouflage jacket off. I put my harness back on, rolling the jacket and tying it around my waist. The landscape between the towns is beautiful. One could forget the horrors of this place for a while if they wished. We walk past wooden railing fence, looking out at the rolling hills. There is a pond or something to our left, North of us. I can hear the water, but I can't see it. It must be hidden by trees. That is kinda symbolic of this place. Everything is hidden away. The Infected hidden in houses, the death hidden by time. The whole sickening reality hidden by the walls and quarantine. It is as if humanity just wants to pretend this never happened. I know I sure wish I could make it all go away.

Jarvis calls closer to one in the afternoon. A drone is scheduled to pass over us in a bit, so we all head over to some trees. After a little work at pulling some branches around us, we look pretty invisible with our camouflage on. We stay hidden, just sipping some water for the better part of an hour. The drone clears us and we get back to walking. In the distance, we seen some deer wandering. They seem at peace with the devastation. Life goes on, I suppose. The clumsy Infected are just another annoying predator to them, it seems. They ignore us, for the most part. I enjoy watching them, but eventually we move on and the road passes through some trees and I lose sight of them.

We go down a hill, around a bend. There is a beautiful bridge there. The stone work is well crafted, with care placed into its work. It was built to last, and it seems to have. The last two days of walking have been relaxing. We have dodged three drones, seen two herds, one of deer, one of cattle. I counted three chickens, two dogs, a fox, and numerous cats. The cats seem to be better at survival. I imagine eventually Chenarus will be over run by cats.

I am exhausted from days of walking. If we had the car, we could have driven here in a day. Instead, we walked for nearly four days, and we are nearly out of food, well on to being out of water, and I am ready to just say screw it. The money isn't worth this. I won't say that of course, it damn well is too worth this. If someone had offered to pay me a half a billion dollars to walk a few days in the country side, I can't imagine an instance where I would say no. As it is however, we are walking through Deathville with a pork chop around our necks. The fact we are alive and not, well... Infected, is all the reason everything around us seems to want us dead. I doubt if this is going to end well.

Through the trees ahead, we come across a house on the end of the hill. Johann decides we will skirt that, and head to what was a market. They may have left behind something we can use for food, and we need to find water. Stary, however, is much larger than Kabanino. The rules here are the same though. We need to stay low, slow, and silent. Johann leads the way, taking care to point out every Infected. Frank is able to take down several with his pistol, but we have to leave some behind. They are just not in a position where we can get a good shot, and a wounded Infected would bring them down on us like before.

We creep up to a section of the town where there are storage sheds. These are not the usual shed in the back yard kind, these are the quality storage unit kind. There are nice shrubs along a wall and then what looks like some kind of car park. It must be one of those KOA camps. I know, what does the KOA stand for? Ostensibly, Kampgrounds Of America, but this is Chenarus. I have no idea what the hell it means over here. We see a large truck in there that looks mostly intact. The problem is, it is a large truck, and it is there, just there, in the open, easy to see. That of course, means the drones have seen it a million times. That means that if it comes missing, someone is sure to notice, or the software that controls the drones might flag it. Either way, it means we don't get to drive it. Frank and Johann talk for a few minutes, and Frank decides to walk around us a bit looking for a car that we might be able to use. Ashley and I carefully push open the doors to the sheds, looking for anything that might help us. Johann makes his way into the market. As Ashley and I are picking through the left overs of someone's sentimental treasures, we hear a few shots. Soon after we hear Infected growling. We decide to get inside a shed and close the doors most of the way. Through a crack in the door, we see Johann running back with a big shopping bag full of old water bottles. We stick our arms out and motion him to us. He runs over and hands us the bag as we open the door. He turns then, holding his pistol out in time to see Frank returning. He is being chased by six or seven, maybe eight Infected. He dodges to the left and Johann and Ashley start to shoot the Infected. I drag the bag of water bottles back into the shed as they finish off the last of them.

Frank collapses back against the wall of the shed. He can barely breath. Apparently he ran out of ammo for his pistol when he stumbled into a nest of Infected. It seems some farmer kept his sheep in a barn and somehow the Infected got into it and feasted on the helpless sheep. They then couldn't get out. He went into the barn hoping for a vehicle and found himself in a barn full of Infected. He was trapped and fought his way out.

We all get in the shed, after making sure no more Infected were coming, then drink some water, sitting down and enjoying being out of the sun. It is very hot in the shed, however, so we are still uncomfortable. “Damn there was a lot of them.” Frank says, reloading his rifle. “I'm sorry, I had to go to my rifle, there was just so many, and I was overrun.” He says looking sheepish. Johann shrugs it off, knowing that we do what we have to, to survive.

Johann passes around some granola bars. As much as we are pretty sick of them, they taste great, considering the alternative is hunger. Jarvis calls and informs us we need to stay put, there is a drone headed our way. Johann acknowledges that and turns off the satellite phone. I take my headset off and whisper for him to do the same. Ashley and Franks are busy checking gear, so I whisper “How did he know we are in here, if there are no drones in the area?” Johann just smiles. Then he whispers, “There is a drone he keeps on us that he is not telling us about, of course.” I shake my head in disgust.

There are games being played. I can feel it. This should be a fairly straight forward thing. Nobody, however, seems to be playing by the same rules. I start to wonder just how much of this is being kept from me. I start to wonder just what all is going on around me, that I have no understanding of.

We continue to walk, skirting the town, unwilling to go deep into it. There is a group of military tents behind the town. Johann decides we should head that direction. We might find some equipment or ammunition to replace what we have spent. We need 9mm and cant go long without it. Just in case, I give Frank my Glock mags and spare 9mm. I switch to the Skorpion and try to look confident. At least the Skorpion is quiet, and I will still be able to shoot if necessary. Looking at the distance between us and the camp, there is a lot of Infected wandering that area. The situation doesn't look great, but we really do need to take the chance. There is little chance of finding ammo in town. The odds are more likely we will expend ammo and find nothing but more Infected. Still, we do need food, and the odds of finding food are better in town. The decision is tough. We will have to put off the hunt for ammunition until after we secure food. We can live with what bullets we have left, but we will starve to death sooner. In the end, Ashley and I stick together, heading North, towards the treeline. There is a smaller barn there, and a small house. We see Infected wandering between the two and I shoot them with the Skorpion. It kicks in my hands a bit more than I anticipated and I miss some of the shots. Still, enough hit that the Infected drops like dead weight, being that it is dead weight.

Ashley also drops a few with her Glock, until it is nearly empty, then switches to her Skorpion. We manage to clear out the house, happily enough. Being in the shade, with the breeze feels really nice. As I put the bag down, I see Ashley at the window with her binoculars. “See anything interesting?” I ask her. Ashley nods, pointing towards town. I walk over and join her.

“Frank is holding back a few Infected, it looks like Johann is looting the market. They might just pull this off, but the Infected are piling up outside the market, so this could be bad. If Jarvis flies a drone over and sees a pile of dead Infected, that might be hard to explain to whoever is monitoring that drone.” Ashley points out. I nod, thinking about that as well. We wait and watch for another half hour, then see Frank and Johann dragging dead Infected inside the market. It takes a while, and they are cautious. Any accidental cut or scratch and whoever is hurt may as well be dead. Then all that survival would be for nothing.

I finally sit down on a dirty old chair and lay my head on the table. I didn't realize how tired I am. The next thing I know, Ashley is waking me up, it is dark, and I smell food. It takes me a few minutes to wipe the sleep from my eyes. Frank is half dressed, using a wet cloth to clean up. Johann is as well, just in his boxers. Even Ashley is in her shorts and tank top. I realize, I smell terrible. With reluctance, I get up and strip down, joining them. We all smelled pretty ripe, and this is one time my own modesty isn't going to stop me.

We spend the rest of the evening in just shorts and tank tops, the guys just shorts, and stay cool. There is so much going on in the world, but right now it feels like nothing in the entire world is happening at all. Whatever is going on outside the QZ, right here, right now, there is nothing at all going on. Even when Jarvis calls, to give us a heads up on a drone covering our area, we couldn't care less. Each of us are lost in the thoughts of losing Kyle. Johann is taking it better than I thought, but he always has been stoic and difficult to read. Frank seems quieter than usual, maybe dealing with some internal guilt. Ashley looks heartbroken, I suspected her and Kyle had something going on, but never asked.

Jarvis didn't seem terribly bothered by it, which reinforces my opinion of him. I think if we survive this, if Johann does, Mr. Jarvis is going to have a very bad day. If he doesn't get him, Ashley sure will. I think even Frank would like a crack at him, though it seems like there is something going on between Jarvis and Frank. Personally, Id like to kick Jarvis in the happy bag. I can think of just the shoes Id do it with too. Those older pointed toe heels I bought that I could never find an occasion to wear them for. Maybe they would be perfect.

By nightfall, we all have settled down, had some stale Cheesaritos and some flat room temperature soda. In all, its not too bad a meal in the middle of the apocalypse. Tomorrow, however, we will have to make an attempt to get to those military tents, and get some bullets if there are any left to be had. According to the map, there should be a police station in the next town, and Mr. Jarvis seems to believe there are few if any Infected left there. While that sounds delightful, it also sounds too good to be true. I have only been in Chenarus a week, and already I have learned, nothing is what it seems.


	4. A shock to the system

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another death, and a lot of dogs

Chapter 4

A shock to the system

I wake up to yelling. In the next room, I hear screams and crying. As I tug on my headset, I scramble to find my pistol and go to see whats going on. Im instantly terrified, which is starting to become my default sensation. I wonder if I will ever wake up, even after we leave this place, without a start, or a scream. I think, we might leave the Chenarus Quarantine Zone, but we will never escape it. 

In the next room, I see Johann and Frank are holding Ashley down. She is covered in blood and I see some squirt from her neck. Frank shoves me back as he rushes to get the medical kit, but Ashley finally just goes limp, crying. Johann looks over at me, telling me to get out. I back out the door, listening to what Frank and Johann say. 

Apparently while it was dark, Ashley went out to go to the bathroom and one attacked her. She got bit... My whole body just feel limp. Oh no, no no no, thats a death sentence. Frank and Johann have known Ashley for years, far longer than I have, this is hitting them hardest.

After they hold her for a few minutes, I hear Johann chamber a round in his pistol. He hands it to her and I am joined in the main room of the house by them both. A minute later, we hear the pistol shoot and something spray on the wall. I stand there, stunned. Just like that, Ashley is dead. Rather than turn into one of those, she chose to go out on her own terms, by her own hand. I wonder, if it happened to me, would I have the courage to do that.

“God damnitall.” Johann says, punching the wall. Frank starts shoving equipment into his bag, and I realize he is sorting through her stuff, taking the things we will probably need. “This complicates things.” Frank says.

“You're damn right about that, she was the best forgery expert among us, but... I suppose you'll have to forge the documents for Peppy when we get out of here.” Johann says. “Why didnt she tell someone she was leaving, we all agreed, nobody goes anywhere alone.” 

As if on cue, Mr. Jarvis calls. I take the call. “Hello?” I say into the satellite phone. “So Ashley is dead, can you three finish the mission on your own?” he asks. I look at Frank and Johann. He knew about it already. That confirms that he is monitoring us.

“Yes, she... just a few minutes ago.” I say, my voice breaking as I try to explain. I hand the phone to Johann. He takes it from me, a little rougher than necessary. I pull my hand back in a jerk, afraid he might shove me away.

“Fucking hell, Jarvis, it barely happened, how do you know already?” he demands. Im surprised by Johann calling him out on that, I thought there was some kind of secret stuff that he was working.

“I was monitoring the comms, I heard it over Peppidy's headset.” he admits. So he IS snooping on us through me. Im the weakest link. I really am the window, through which he sees everything that happens to us. I feel so pathetic, so used, so weak. How did I get singled out? What did I do?

“How long until we can get moving, I dont want to stay here any longer, not with her in there...” Johann says. I can just barely hear Mr. Jarvis say ninety minutes. So, we have to stay here with her body for another hour and a half. Great. I feel sick and rush over to throw up in the corner. I take two wobbly steps, then slide down the wall as it hits me fully. I hug my knees, crying. Im going to die in here. I cant do this, if Kyle and Ashley cant survive, how can I? I AM the weakest link.

After a few minutes, Frank walks over and yanks me to my feet. “Get a hold of yourself, get your shit packed, and be ready to move out. We have to go when its time. We have to get that ammo, and we have to get moving to get this shit over with as soon as possible.” he practically yells at me.

I walk to my stuff, shaking, Im terrified of Frank when he is like this. I am terrified of this place, and of what happened to Kyle and Ashley. As I roll up my bedroll and start to pack up my food and drink, Im crying uncontrollably. The smell, the weight of death is so heavy here. 

We move out just over and hour later. The drone was a little faster leaving than expected. We got lucky that it was not directly overhead when the gun was fired, the muzzle flash might have been picked up. Of course, it could have been anything really, and it would be unlikely they would break the pre-programmed flight pattern of the drone, to investigate a flash of light. Still, there would be that small percentage of a chance.

We move out in the dark, moving quietly and swiftly to the little military camp on the hill overlooking Starry Sobor. The compound is encircles by lots of razor wire and there are watch towers. Johann tells me to stay with Frank. I have no problem with that, since that means we will stay mostly outside the compound. 

Inside the compound, we see a couple dozen Infected wandering around, trapped inside by the wire. Johann moves it aside just enough to sneak in, then starts to sneak from tent to tent. Over the headsets, we hear his whisper from time to time. “Got a Kashtan... four mags, AKM, loose ammo, helmet... he gives us a bit of a grocery list of items he finds, left in the tents, when the infected breached the wire. It is likely, one of the soldiers got infected, scratched or bit, and turned as he lay in his bed inside the safety of the compound.

Johann finally reappears to us, slipping back outside the wire. He shows Frank the big bag he has full of stuff. We hurry away from the compound and finally stop in the middle of a large field. The sun is just starting to come up. Looking back, I can see better, the little town that was Starry Sobor. It was a nice looking little town, the kind you might expect to see Andy and Barney and Aunt Bea living in.

Johann shows Frank the Kashtan sight he found, as he bolts it onto his AKM. He adds a battery and they take turns sighting in on stuff through it. Apparently, its some kind of sniper sight. They split up the ammo and Frank takes the additional AKM mags. They give me four protein bars that he found in a dead soldier's jacket. We get moving, walking quickly to the next little town, Novy Sabor.

Novy Sabor is tiny, basically a little suburb of the little town Starry Sabor. It has a police station, which we see from our vantage point. The infected wander the streets, but there are only a dozen at any time, between us and the police station. With the new sniper sight, Frank picks off the few infected as they get to places that they might not be visible to the drones. We are far enough away that even the noise of the assault rifle is indirect and the infected do not know what way to go. They get aggravated, but other than moving faster in hapless circles, they do nothing.

“I think the coast is clear. Lets move out.” Johann says, as he takes his rifle back from Frank, who is, by far, the best shot we have. Still, the sight is heavy, and Johann's big frame can handle the additional weight. Frank is already carrying way more than any of us ever thought we would have to carry, keeping both Kyle's tools to get a vehicle going, as well as Ashley's electronics kit. I really have no idea what good the electronics kit is doing for us, but maybe there is sentimental value in it.

My own bag is packed with a change of clothing, but most importantly of all, my safe cracking kit. Without it, I am useless, this mission is pointless, and we will not be able to get out of here alive. Mr. Jarvis will not allow us to leave here without the dongle.

We hustle down the street at a bit of a jog. As we pass a street, Johann points out some infected in the distance, too far away from us to be able to see us. With their eyes clouded over, they have poor vision, which explains their aggravation to motion and sound. I suppose it is true, when you lose a sense, the others become more astute.

We reach the police station a few minutes later, and Frank spends some time clearing it out, before Johann allows me farther than the main area on the bottom floor. It is a small police station, but we need pistol ammunition, so this is our best chance to find some.

We find their little armory. In it are five pistols, thirty magazines of ammo, and two large crates of 9mm ammo. We all reload our pistol mags and take a pocket full of loose rounds. It means more weight, but our lives might depend on what we have with us, not how light our load feels. As I have discovered, when my life depends on it, I can do things, I never thought I could do.

We take time to drink and I eat one of the protein bars. We have a long way to go before we rest again. Johann says it will be several days before we get to the next town. It could be a shorter distance, but we must keep to the treeline. During drone fly-by's we will be forced to hide in the trees, remaining still, and relying on our camouflage to remain undetected. If we could simply cross fields in the open, we could cut the travel time in half.

Unfortunately, stealth is a must for us, or the drone would report us, and an armed drone would shoot us where we stood. Im all for staying alive, so it looks like we will be taking the long way home. Johann leads the way, using his folding compass to navigate, and I use my little sundial ring to keep track of the time.

If you have never heard of a sundial ring, its a great little gadget. You might be mistaken in thinking that a sundial can not possibly work on a ring. You would laugh if you knew how silly that is. The sundial ring works by having inscriptions on the inside of time and months. You rotate the outer part until it lines up on the appropriate month, for the time zone the ring is made for. Then when you want to know what time it is, you just slide it off your finger, point it North, then look as the sun shined through a little hole in the ring, onto the appropriate time. It is fairly accurate, not to the minute, but you can tell the time in hours and can get a good idea of the time between hours. I recommend you check one out if you ever want a great gadget to make your friends jealous.

We continue walking, taking cover for drone over-flights, until it starts to get dark. By then, my legs are sore, my shoulders are throbbing, and I am sick of this place. Chenarus is one beautiful place to live, back before all of this, but now, it is just a huge empty box of death. No matter how far we walk, we come across the occasional wrecked car, its occupants usually dead, though not always. Sometimes one will have one or more infected, trapped in their safety belts, or the crumpled metal of the wrecked car. They moan and grown and get very animated as we walk by. There is no point in shooting them, just a waste of ammunition. The worst has already come for them. We look on saddened for them, especially when it is a child among them. For me, that is the hardest part.

We sleep in the dark that night, and the next several, only the wind and the occasional animal to witness our trespassing. By the time we arrive at the next town, I can barely stand to carry my pack. We stop on a hill top overlooking the little city of Gorka. It is, as they all are, a very rural little place, spread out, full of fields and houses. It also has a police station, but it is surrounded by dozens of infected. We are not going to enter Gorka, the risk to reward ratio is way out of balance.

Johann guides us to a house on the outskirts, unattended by infected. Through the window, Frank shoots two infected, inside, and we make our entry into it. We will overnight here, letting our shoulders and feet have some merciful rest. He sets several similar sized rocks in a circle in the middle of the main room, then places a random piece of metal he finds on top of them. I watch, curious, as I follow Johann's orders, to cover the windows with pieces of bedding. Once covered, he lights a heating tablet, and Frank grins as he produces the Russian version of poptarts. Apparently he was holding on to them as a treat for when we got here.

We heat up the poptarts and try to eat them as slowly as possible, savoring every morsel. They are cinnamon and brown sugar flavor, but I dont care. Right now, with my boots off, my pack on the floor, and my belly getting the taste of something warm, I find myself strangely satisfied, despite my situation. We unroll the bedrolls and take turns watching, as we sleep. I go last, of course. I always seem to be the last one.

We end up staying in the house for two days, as none of us feel like traveling the next day. We are all pretty wiped out, and the extra day rest is much needed. When we do finally pack up, we start out headed North, to pass through a large forest. Our goal is to make our way along a hiking trail, past the tiny towns of Dubrovka and Vyshnaya Dubrovka, until we reach the town of Krasnostav. We will need to hurry, there is a storm building, and we do not want to be caught out in the open. Staying the extra day both hurt us, and helped us. We were in no condition to keep moving. Still, it means we are racing the clock to get to Krasnostav.

We set out, Johann first, then me, then Frank. We take cover several times, avoiding drone flights, and get well into the woods when it happens.

Johann freezes, Frank too. I stop, looking at them both. Johann looks bone white. I mean, really, what the hell could scare him so much, out here in the woods, that could not scare him in town? Then I hear it too. The cry of wolves. We are so fucked. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, we are helpless to really do much. If it is a large pack, we will be overwhelmed and killed.

Frank immediately takes his pack off, unclipping some rope, that he throws over a tree branch. When the other end comes down, he ties it to the base of the tree, then Johann yanks my pack off, tying it to the rope, along with his and Franks. They tell me to start climbing. Oh, so THIS is why we had to practice climbing a rope as part of our training. Shit, I wish I had known. I start to climb as fast as I can, and I feel Johann start climbing under me. Within a minute, all three of us are on the rope, and I am nearly to the branch. 

On the branch, I straddle it, crawling along it to make room for them. Johann struggles up onto it, as the wolves arrive. He pulls Frank up and together they pull the rope up, yanking our packs from the mouths of the wolves. Once it is out of their reach, they both pull out their pistols and start taking shots at the wolves. They kill five or six, wounding three or four, before the biggest, the pack leader, is killed. Once that happens, they limp away, the fight taken out of them. Frank takes his assault rifle and continues to shoot at them, killing two more, before they disappear as quickly as they arrived.

Johann lowers down the rope, with our packs, and we climb down. We know they might decide to return, if they get themselves worked up into another frenzy. It's possible, though truly, none of us are experts on wolf behavior. I know now, I may never like dogs again. Damn, if I survive this place, I wonder if there is anything I will still like. 

The next three days we are not bothered by wolves, though we do stumble into a few random infected, out here wandering among the trees. It is that reason, we always have someone on watch while the other two try to rest. We do stumble upon a wrecked police car, the two officers inside still... infected. Johann kills them both with his pistol, and they loot the car, taking the gun belts off the police officers. They empty the 9mm ammo from them, which makes up for what was wasted on the stupid wolves. 

We are running low on food and water now. By the time we get to Krasnostav, we are running, pretty much, on determination alone. I know that I am so glad to see the sleepy little place, that I do not even blink at the few infected that we see among the houses. We pick them off, in places they will fall among weeds or a ditch. Places that one could reasonably be expected to be found, stuck in a ditch, or hidden among the weeds.

We go into the little town, looting a few houses for stale crackers, some cans of peaches, and two bottles of water. We can not really stay, the place is crawling with infected, the further into town you go. They have a police station, but there are so many infected between us and there, that we would risk leaving a trail of dead infected in perfect view of a drone, if we were to try shooting them all.

We bypass the town, crossing a field, until we get to the Krasnostav airport. We are not terribly far from Novodmitrovsk now. It will take us about a week to get there, and then the fun starts. Novodmitrovsk is several times the size of any of the towns we have run into so far. The population there was also many times the number we have seen so far, and as you might have noticed, so far, we have not dared to go into places too terribly infested. That will all change with our arrival, since the Turov is smack dab in the middle of the place.

By the time we get to the airport, the storm is upon us. We make it inside, slightly wet, but otherwise fine. As we expected, there were several infected here, but we shot them from a distance, then dragged them into weeds and sheds. Once inside the small terminal, we again, cover windows, then fire up a heating tab, drying our clothes, and waiting out the drone flights over us.

During the night, we do hear a couple infected wander past, but we do not bother with them. It is just as well, the drones that fly over, will see them in their night vision cameras, and assume everything is status quo. 

We wait out the storm, which lasts two days. During that time, we look a few candy and soda machines. Frank also loots a cigarette machine, unsatisfied with the crap Russian cigarettes, but willing to admit, they are better than nothing. Personally, I think smoking is gross, but I am terrified of Frank. He hates me, and never misses a chance to show his distaste that I am here. I feel the same about him, though nobody cares what I feel. Im the weakest link, after all, only here because I can bust the Turov.


	5. The Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We make it to Novodmitrovsk

Chapter 5

The Arrival

Early the next morning, Johann wakes both Frank and I. Mr. Jarvis has a small window for us to sneak out of the airport. The drones paths are simply converging more on this general area, following a large herd of infected. We need to get the hell out of here, or be over run by infected. As low on ammo as we are, that would be the end of us.

Reluctantly, we gather what little we have left, taking several of the stale treats from the snack machine, and several cans of warm, nearly flat soda from the soda machine. We leave the place in a mess, not that it was exactly clean when we arrived, but still...

It is warm out, again, and humid. We are all soaked in sweat almost immediately after leaving the shade and relative cool, of the ground station. We have to quickly make our way across the airstrip, basically because being that out in the open, moving fast, we will stand out should a drone spot us. Frank takes point, and Johann stays near me. We have a few days of travel ahead of us, to get to Cernaya Polana, the suburb of Novodmitrovsk, itself. Drone footage, according to Mr. Jarvis, shows Cernaya Polana to be very heavily infested with infected. No doubt, Novodmitrovsk will be just as heavily infested. We will really have to watch ourselves. If just one of the infected spots us, they all will come running, like some great swarm of rotting flesh. 

We get moving and don't stop for several hours, crossing the airstrip and the empty field on the far side of the airstrip. We have to cut our way through the fence that surrounds the airstrip, which is awkward. There are several infected that charge us as we do, but Frank is good, and shoots them as they come out of some weeds. They drop into the weeds and we hope, from sight of the drones.

Almost exactly an hour later, we hear the cry of wolves and we all scramble to find a place to escape them. We are fortunate to find a hunting shack, and slam the door shut just as they arrive. This is very bad for us. We need to get moving, no time to waste, and equally bad, we have no ammo to waste on them. Frank demands my pistol, so I hand it to him. Admittedly, I have not been shooting, so naturally, I have more ammo than he or Johann. He uses my pistol to shoot the biggest wolf of the pack, dropping it like nothing. The rest seem unsure what to do, so he continues to shoot them until they again flee. No sooner do they disappear over a small ridge, than Johann grabs my hand and pulls me along as we run from the shack, down a paved road towards Cernaya Polana.

The satellite phone rings a few minutes after, its it, of course, Mr. Jarvis. We need to go to ground NOW! I relay the message and Frank points to a drainage ditch. We rush to it and cover ourselves with weeds. Not more than twenty minutes later, we hear a drone pass over, circle a few times, then move on. We continue to wait until finally it rings again. I pass the phone to Frank. He takes the call, motioning for us to stay as we are. I nod, and we do hear an engine of some kind of craft move past, though it seems far away. Then he nods, and we start to get up. He continues to talk to Mr. Jarvis as Johann and I brush off the dirt and weeds. Great, now we are hot, sweaty, sticky, and covered in dirt and weeds. This day has really started off great. I almost wish the wolves had finished us off, just to avoid this.

We get back on the road, once we make our way back to it, and we hurry up the road at best speed. This is difficult because we all are running on fumes, and are nearly exhausted. The heat, combined with the humidity, makes this jog feel impossible, and I want to stop and just curl up in a ball and cry because its so hard. Johann says, he thinks we might arrive in Cernaya Polana early, we are making good time. I guess so, I have no idea where we are, the few signs we do pass offer no clue, but he keeps peeking through his military compass and seems fairly sure we are doing better than we thought. Its all up hill though, so I hardly care, my legs are on fire, and my feet are killing me. My back hurts in ways I can not describe, and my shoulders feel like someone stood over me and kicked me repeatedly in the area between my neck and arm.

As night falls, we arrive at an outcropping of trees. Johann throws the rope up and we all climb up into the biggest tree we can find and tie ourselves down to sleep the night away. I am so relieved, I drink some water, eat some trail mix, then before I know it, I'm asleep. I suppose its unfair of me to just go to sleep, after all, we should keep turns on watch, but they don't wake me, and I don't wake up until morning.

I awake to the sound of gunfire, as Frank is killing some more wolves that tracked our scent and were gathered around the base of the tree. It takes a while, because they keep running around and at times, out of the range he can turn to shoot. Johann looks at the dead wolves and shakes his head. They are rabid. That is doubly bad, if they even nipped us, we would be as good as dead, because there is no medicine for that anywhere near us. Frank keeps shooting them, but they don't scare off, probably because they are all rabid. They are not acting right, not like normal wolves. Frank has to use nearly all my pistol ammo to finally kill the last one. Below us, there is a pile of dead wolves, and getting down will be dicey, as we don't even want to touch them. If one of them is able to move, to scratch us or bite, we risk a death just as sure as if the infected did.

Johann leads the way down, dropping his pack slowly, very slowly, trying to get as little of their blood on it as possible. Having blood soak into his pack could become a problem later, when we reach Novodmitrovsk. The infected might pick up on the scent and, well, do what infected do. We have little to drink, to spare to wash it off, so he simply wipes it off as best as he can, with a shirt, then throws the shirt away. Frank lowers his pack down, and Johann stacks it in a dry area, where he placed his own pack once he climbed down and retrieved it. Frank follows his pack down, then I do the same, lowering mine, then climbing down. Johann then pulls the loop release, and the rope falls. It lands on some of the wolves and we hear one that was only badly wounded growl. It shocks us all, and Frank spins, firing and kills it. Unfortunately, the rope is soaked, so we abandon it.

Today is slightly cooler, less humid. We get moving, though none of us want to. We really could have used an extra day at the airport to recover, but time is wasting. We are already weeks behind schedule. The plan was to drive all this way, but we lost the car way back around Stary Sobor. According to Frank, the engine just couldn't do it, and it blew a main seal, whatever that is. They were lucky enough to find an empty garage to hide it in. I wondered why we were on foot, but I guess I never asked because we had so much shit going on.

We keep walking all day until we come upon two houses. They are some distance from Cernaya Polana, but we are glad to find them. The first is a taller two story structure, which is not uncommon for this place. It is tall, with a staircase up to the door. Frank clears the house, finding no infected inside. Johann goes to clear the other house, a modest single story that stretches along. I follow Frank up and am just setting my pack down when we hear a scream, then more, and Johann shooting. Frank rushes out and I close the door behind him. I unshoulder my rifle, remembering to take it off safety.

After a few minutes Frank returns, then Johann, and we sit at the old dinner table. Apparently Johann walked in on several infected, trapped in the bedroom of the house. We all take some time to drink some water, which empties my canteens. I have nothing but the cans of soda. Frank isn't much better off, with half a canteen left. Johann is also down to just a few cans of soda. We then unpack our packs, dropping extra clothing. We get rid of cooking gear and anything extra. We are only a day and a half from Novodmitrovsk, so what we are wearing is what we will be wearing when we make our escape. We had planned to not do this until well after we cracked the Turov, but we will need to be fast and light to get through Novo. This bring sup a problem for us. The Turov is four days travel from the coast line. Even after we bust it, we will have a damn long trip, carrying nearly nothing to eat or drink, and nearly no ammo to defend ourselves. 

Frank sums it up best, even if we get the dongle, we are still fucked. I have to agree. Johann normally would argue him down, but seems inclined to agree. Once I crack the Turov, we will just have to do our best, making our way to the coast, along the railroad tracks out of Novo, and waiting for the evacuation helicopter. We really have no alternatives. Frank, however, poses a good suggestion. He asks, why don't we hot wire a car in town and drive to the evacuation site, since by then, who cares if later the drones spot the car? We will be picked up and long gone by the time they do, and all the drones can do is report a car suddenly disappeared and reappeared on the coast. There may be some remote investigation, but nobody will be sent in to look it over, and in time it will just be relegated to the “strange but true” file.

Johann thinks its a great idea, as do I. I really was not looking forward to that trip on foot. We now know there are at least one pack of rabid wolves in the area, and that means there could be more. Fact is, there probably is more out there. For all we know, the virus could have jumped species again. While this is news that might make headlines outside the QZ, it wont come from us. After all, if we were to report it, the first question would be, how do we know?

We rest a couple hours, then Johann gets us going. We are lighter and faster, for sure. I'm carrying very little, just some cans of flat soda, two packs of poptarts, the tools I need to bust the Turov, and one mag of ammo and my rifle.

Frank has my SMG, the three mags for it I had left, my pistol, and one mag for it, and his rifle and three mags for it, plus tools to hot wire a car. He also has several cans of soda and two cans of peaches. I'm not entirely sure what all Johann has, but I know he has just his rifle and the SMG he brought. He loft behind the pistol, as he was out of ammo anyhow, and if we get into trouble, it will be Frank that does most of the shooting, since he is the best shot, and will waste the least amount of ammo.

We jog our way to Novodmitrovsk, arriving just as the sun is going down, and drop, like we are dead, in the first house we see. We know it is not safe, aggravated infected can easily smash through the flimsy doors, but as long as we remain quiet and stay away from the windows, we should be reasonably safe long enough to take turns sleeping, and rest our bodies. I know mine feels like I've been trampled by horses.

Novodmitrovsk sits in a valley. We are still up on the top of a hill, looking down into the city. From here we can not see a whole lot, but we can tell the city stretches on for kilometers. Even now, we can see infected swarming around in the city, as we peek at them through Johann's sniper scope. Getting into Novodmitrovsk will be hard, getting out, will be harder.

Frank spots a little hatchback on the hill leading into Novodmitrovsk and tells us he will get that one running. He just has to make sure it has fuel, then hopefully, as it rolls down the hill, he can get it to go. Johann agrees, its a good plan. I worry for him, oddly enough. It means, he is willing to risk his life, going into Novodmitrovsk with us, then back up the hill alone, to get the car, then risk returning in it, to rescue us for the escape out of town. I have to give him that much, he has guts. If it was up to me, I'm not sure I could do that. I am too much of a coward. Well, given, I am in the QZ, surrounded by infected, to bust a safe and steal a half billion dollars, OK, maybe I'm not such a coward, but I'm not THAT brave.

We get the call fro Mr.. Jarvis, hold our position until further notice. We spend the night here, in our little house, and most of the next day, as the drones scan the area, keeping track of the herd of infected headed this way. Great, I forgot about THAT. So rabid wolves, no ammo, miles from the shore, and a herd of infected coming, can it get any better?

When we finally leave the old house, the door will not close all the way. This really does not matter, but it goes to show just how the years and all the weathering, have worked to destroy what was once a rather beautiful place. It also shows how easily the infected could just bust in on us. That door was so rotted from rain and whatever else, that it basically fell off its hinges.

We start our entry into Novodmitrovsk early afternoon, and its slow going. We have to take each house, one at a time. Johann uses his mirror on a stick, to scan the area past each fence, and one at a time, we go from house to house, dodging infected, shooting them only when absolutely necessary. The suppressor on my pistol is starting to go, from too much use, and too little maintenance. Another magazine or two, and it will be useless. Frank knows this, and I can see fear in his eyes. If Frank is afraid, then we are in deep shit.

Johann leads us to the edge of the town square. We can see the tall government building, the capital like structure, just a hundred meters away. We are in what used to be a store, looking over the courtyard. There are dozens of infected here, mostly trapped by the roadblocks set up to try to keep them out. One must have gotten in, or someone infected did, and well, that didn't work. It means we are going to have to make a run for it. The infected rarely have the ability to run anymore, when first infected, the body is still in good enough condition, that some can, but these have been here years, and are showing the signs of rot and stagnation. Many crawl along, and the ones still staggering, seem slow and plodding. This is at least working in our favor.

Johann leads us in our sprint to the doors to the government building. Immediately the infected spot us and start to come for us. I run like my life depends on it, because, it does. Frank runs, faster than me, so he pauses now and then to look back, taking a shot now and then at any that seem too close. Johann, being the tallest, arrives at the doors to the government building first. He pushes on them, but they refuse to open, so he yanks on them finally getting one partially open. As I slip through, he follows, and Frank closes it behind him, as Johann wraps the last of the rope around it, to secure it as the infected again slam into it, as they certainly had before.

Inside we see a scene nobody should ever witness. The last few survivors of Chenarus, gathered in the hallway of this huge structure, safe behind the bullet resistant glass of the walls and doors, and had nowhere to go, no food, or water, and no ammo. We see their bodies, skeletons with skin stretched over them, rotting away. They starved or dehydrated to death, with no hope for escape or rescue. The world let them die, to ensure no infected were allowed outside the QZ.

I say a prayer for them, the last living citizens of Chenarus. Still, we have a job to do, and time is essential. If we do not want to share their fate, we have to move as fast as we can. I am about to drop my pack and take out just the tools I will need, when Frank yells for us to join him. Johann and I join him by the lobby's main check in area. There is a long desk along the far wall, and Frank is sitting on it. Johann walks behind the desk to see what Frank wants as I just arrive. “Johann, I've been talking with Mr. Jarvis. You know, we need the kid to bust the Turov, but... we don't need you.” he says and raises the pistol, shooting Johann. Johann falls back, sliding down and dropping like a sack of potatoes behind the counter. I see Frank shoot two more times at where Johann dropped, then he points it at me. “You, make yourself useful, and find that safe.” he orders.

I'm shaking. He hops down, taking my arm and shoving me towards the stairs that lead up to the Presidential Suite. The King, or Prince, or whatever, of Chenarus, kept the Turov up there. I am shaking still as I start to climb the stairs, my bladder threatens to let go, as I realize, we were all double crossed by Frank. I wonder, will he kill me after I open the Turov? No, they need me to pose as the Princess, to get the account open, after we leave here.

It is several stories up, each barricaded with beds and dressers and whatever the few survivors could find, to fortify this place, should the infected break through the heavy glass of the lobby. I am joined by Frank, and he keeps shoving me along, up the stairs, till we reach the elevator shaft just below the level with the safe. We have to climb a rusty ladder up, then push open the elevator doors at the top. Finally, we have made it. Kyle, Ashley, Johann, they arrive with me, in memory. Now all that is left is do break the vault. 

Frank leans in the doorway of a living room, that connects to the office where I am looking over the Turov. It is like a boss fight in a video game, now it is up to me. I drop my bag and start to size it up when I feel hands grab me, one over my mouth, the other around my arms. I can just make out ratty hair and what looks like an infected's face. I try to scream, but it is muffled, I feel it wrestle me to the floor, ,y headset ripped away, and I see two are pulling Frank down as well. I scream and scream, struggling, but one of them walks plodding along, stepping on my headset, as it closes in on me, as Frank lays limply in the doorway. We... were... so... close...

Eplilogue

To Those We Left Behind

The arm around mine lets go as does the one over my mouth, and I bolt away. I hear laughing behind me, and the infected reaches up and pulls off their... mask. Ashley is laughing as she points at Frank. He is laughing too, helping Johann to take off his mask. Kyle also does, as he kicks whats left of my headset away. I'm stunned, unsure what to say.

“C'mon kid, lets crack that safe.” Frank says pointing to the Turov. Ashley pats me on the back, helping me along, as my brain tries to make sense of this.

“We should let her in on the secret now that Mr. Jarvis is probably erasing any evidence he was in contact with someone in the QZ, much less helping them.” Kyle says.

“Agreed, she deserves to know.” Johann says as I get to work.

I cant go into how to bust a Turov, there are still five in service to governments around the world, so it must remain an industry secret, but it takes hours. During that time Kyle explains, Frank had a contact that heard some former KGB officer, now working for the UN, was quietly searching for someone who could bust a Turov. He asked around and it turned out, it was Mr. Jarvis, looking to pull this heist.

He informed Johann about it, including the fact its half a billion dollars, and they set up a plan to lure Mr. Jarvis to them. First, however, Frank recommended Johann and Kyle interview me, and bring me in on the scheme. They suspected Mr. Jarvis, being former KGB, would not be trustworthy, so they set up a counter scheme, placing Frank as the spoiler, and along the way, Ashley and Kyle would appear to die. They would keep the car we found, and since Mr. Jarvis needed twenty minutes before and after reporting to us, to clear his drone from the area before UN drones arrives, they knew, they had twenty minutes to arrive in a town, stash the car, find a place to hide, and twenty minutes to get back tot he car, and get out of town, before his drone would pick us back up. That would be plenty of time for them to stay one step ahead of us. Each time, they would mark a door of a house, and leave notes for Johann and Frank. To keep Mr. Jarvis believing it all, they did not tell me about it, relying on my honest reactions, to fool him. They knew, he would monitor me, as I was made to seem the weakest link. Clearly, it worked, because we have not received a call from Mr. Jarvis. He apparently was fooled by the fake infected attack, and the last thing he saw was me being taken down, before the spy camera on my headset was crushed and broken. With me dead, there is no chance anyone will ever bust the Turov, so there is no chance he will ever try again. I'm stunned, basically by the cleverness of it all.

I hold up the dongle, as I pull it from the safe, and we all cheer. We climb back down the elevator shaft, walk down the stairs, and by now, the infected have gone back to their aimless walking. Johann and Kyle lead us through the back door of the government building, and we run like mad to the old hatchback, piling into it, now without all that gear. Johann hits the gas and we drive off, just as infected reach us. We are laughing as we speed along the railroad tracks, to the coast.

We leave the car on the coast, as Kyle talks to the helicopter with the satellite phone. Its only moments before we are whisked off and we leave the hell that is Chenarus behind us.

Two weeks later, Kyle escorts me to a Swiss bank, where I show them the forged identity papers, Ashley made for me, as well as the dongle. The account is accessed, and we transfer it to five bank accounts. It takes some time and we are scared as hell, but they have no reason to suspect anything. In the end, we meet back together at a cafe in Paris, where we pop the cork on the most expensive bottle of wine they have, and toast... “To great friends. To great challenges, and to this... the best of times.”


End file.
